WBB: Late Second Half Rally Lifts Shaw Past Virginia Union 85-66

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Raleigh, N.C. — The Shaw University Lady Bears used a late second half rally to rally and defeat Virginia Union 85-66 in a game played on Monday night at C.C. Spaulding Gymnasium.

Trailing by 10 with 9:51 remaining, the Lady Bears closed out the game on a 40-11 run to earn their seventh straight victory as they improve to 15-2 overall. Despite Union being a CIAA adversary, the game was classified as a nonconference contest. Virginia Union falls to 7-9 overall this season.

After a sluggish first half of shooting, the Lady Bears outscored the Lady Panthers 58-30 in the second half. As a team, the Lady Bears shot 30 of 69 from the floor for 43.5 percent. Shaw was also sent to the free throw line 26 times in the physical battle as they converted on 21 of their free throw attempts for an 80.8 percent rate.

“When you score 58 points in the second half, that’s pretty good,” said Shaw associate head coach Carl Hatchell. “We played smarter. Most of the game, we were making one pass and shooting the perimeter shot and they were clogging up the lanes and getting the rebounds. In the last 10 minutes, we finally started working the ball and getting it inside. We were making more passes and were moving. Getting some offensive rebounds helped, too.”

Union led for most of the first 30 minutes of play, fighting back from an early Shaw lead, then building a double-digit lead before the end of the first half.

“They were double teaming our point guard and they gave us the wide open shot,” said Hatchell on how Union was able to hold the lead for the majority of the game. “They clogged up the middle, trying to prevent us from getting the ball inside. We would make one pass and shoot and we just weren’t making them. That’s all they were doing. Once we quit doing that, we started moving the ball around and we had some players make some great plays within our offensive flow.”

The Lady Bears won the battle of the boards as they outrebounded Virginia Union 50-37. At halftime, Shaw held a narrow 22-21 rebounding edge. Of their 50 total rebounds, 17 came on the offensive glass.

Ronika Ransford led all scorers with 26 points including hitting seven of eight from the free throw line. Taylor Dalrymple was one of two Shaw players with a double-double as she finished with 25 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Crystal Wilson had 11 points and 10 assists in the victory. Crystal Harris also had 10 points and eight rebounds.

“Taylor played a great game,” said Hatchell. “Both she and Crystal Harris did a good job sealing off in the last 10 minutes of the second half. When we got the ball to them, they were able to finish and that made a major difference in the game.” Shaw’s Crystal Gordon won the opening tip and sent the ball right into the hands of Crystal Wilson, who converted a layup just three seconds into the contest. Adana David’s jumper and a free throw by Wilson gave the Lady Bears the early 5-0 advantage with 18:24 remaining.

Ashle Freeman led Virginia Union’s comeback in the first half, leading the Lady Panthers to a 17-4 run over the next four minutes to give her team a 17-9 cushion. Freeman scored 15 of Union’s 17 points during the spurt, including a three-pointer that put the Lady Panthers up 17-9 with 14:02 remaining.

The Lady Bears missed their next five field goal attempts and turned the ball over seven times during Virginia Union’s run. Virginia Union’s Adrianna Allen buried a free throw with 10:10 remaining in the open frame to extend the lead to 21-9 for the Lady Panthers.

Ransford finally broke the scoring drought for the Lady Bears, burying a jumper from the top of the key with 9:24 remaining to get her squad within 10 at 21-11. With 8:21 remaining in the period, the Lady Panthers took a 23-11 lead on a jumper by Danielle Ferguson.

With her team down by 13 (24-11), Dalrymple drove to the bucket and converted a layup while being fouled on the play. She buried the free throw to bring the Lady Bears back within 10 at 24-14 with 7:21 left.

The Lady Panthers responded with five straight points, including another bucket from Freeman. With 5:51 remaining in the first half, Virginia Union’s Carla Cowherd hit a layup and was fouled. She buried the free throw to put her team up 29-14.

The Lady Bears responded with a late 11-1 run and pulled within five at 30-25. Kearah Jeffreys buried a three-pointer with 2:24 remaining in the first half to bring Shaw within eight. After a turnover by Virginia Union, Ransford buried a deep three-pointer as the shot clock expired to cut the deficit to five.

Parress Davis’ layup in the first minute of the second half put the Lady Panthers back up by 11 and extended their run to 8-2. After Freeman put the Lady Panthers up 40-29, Jeffreys buried another three-pointer to cut the deficit to eight at 40-32 with 17:50 remaining.

With the Lady Bears down nine, Dalrymple made a layup to bring her team within seven. After a series of misses by Virginia Union, Wilson cut the deficit to five with a layup. Wilson received a dish from Jeffreys under the basket for the bucket to make it 42-37 with 13:57 remaining in the contest.

Once again, the Lady Panthers answered with six straight points to go back up by 11 at 48-37 with 12:35 left.

Wilson helped the Lady Bears answer with six straight points, part of a 6-1 run for Shaw. Wilson sank two free throws with 11:00 remaining to cut Union’s lead back to six at 49-43. With 9:51 remaining in the contest, the Lady Panthers held a 55-45 lead after a free throw by Danielle Ferguson.

That’s when the Lady Bears began their comeback, which started with a 12-1 run over the next two minutes that eventually gave them the lead. Harris scored on a layup to give the Lady Bears their first lead since the first half at 57-56 with 7:47 remaining.

The Lady Panthers tied the game at 57 on a free throw by Shahadah Barret but the Lady Bears scored the next nine points to extend their run to 23-2, capped off by four straight points from Dalrymple, as they built a 68-57 lead with 5:19 remaining.

Allen broke the scoring drought for Union on a jumper with 4:35 remaining, which made it 68-59. Harris extended Shaw’s scoring run to 25-4 with a layup to put the Lady Bears back up 11 with 3:11 remaining.

On the other end, Dalrymple stole the ball away from Union’s Melyce Brown and found Ransford, who was all alone for the easy layup. The bucket put Shaw up 72-59 with 3:02 remaining.

Davis cut the deficit to 11 with a layup on the other end. but the Lady Bears responded with another bucket from Dalrymple which put them back up by 13 at 74-61 with 2:16 remaining. Dalrymple’s layup extended Shaw’s scoring run to 29-6.

Dalrymple put the Lady Bears up 15 at 78-63 after converting another layup with 1:20 remaining in the contest, which put the game out of reach for Virginia Union.

Ransford buried two free throws to put the Lady Bears up 17 at 80-63 with 59 ticks remaining. The flashy junior would score again 26 seconds later after scoring on a layup off a nice pass from Dalrymple. The bucket put the Lady Bears up 83-66.

Dalrymple sank two more free throws with 20 seconds remaining to cap off the 40-11 run, which gave them the 85-66 lead. The 19-point cushion was the largest lead of the game for Shaw.

Virginia Union, which went 12 of 30 from the field in the first half for 40.0 percent, shot 23 of 61 from the floor in the game for 37.7 percent. After going two of five from beyond-the-arc in the first half, the Lady Panthers finished just 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from downtown for the game.

Freeman led the Lady Panthers with 22 points, but had just three points in the second half. Brown finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds to round out the double digit scorers for Virginia Union.

The Lady Bears will return to CIAA Southern Division play when they travel to Winston-Salem State on Wednesday night. This will be the first road contest for the Lady Bears since January 7. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.